I am saddened by the very possibility of the W3C making a decision like this.
It is, after all, the outgrowth of a work funded by public money at CERN,
which was built on another project funded by public money at various
universities and research establishments. How is it that, with all their
talk about innovation, private companies were unable to come up with the
Internet and the Web? Does it not bode ill for the future of those two
entities if they are to be subject to the tender mercies of software patents
and their hawkers?
If these licenses are to be enforced, how will this affect the third world?
Will this be another case of the developed world pulling the ladder up behind
it and sucking more money from people who cannot afford to pay the fees large
Western corporations may demand? I think the W3C should consider its wider
responsibilities as the generally-respected guardian of a global system, and
eschew the dubious chance to become a promoter of the distasteful side of
globalisation. If it goes ahead with this proposal, it will in my view have
lost any claim to be an authoritative arbiter of the future of the Web, and
will be risking the balkanisation of this wonderful creation. I for one will
support any open-source efforts to create an alternative web which is of the
people, for the people and by the people.
Kevin Donnelly